Kanaka Maoli Statement on Racism
We Kanaka Maoli (indigenous people of Hawai'i) are fighting for self-determination in our homelands. The following is a list of the racisms that we and other indigenous peoples suffer under United States colonialism. This list was developed for public presentation to the US government December 10 - 11, 1999, in the spirit of the Ku'e Petitions, by which our ancestors protested against colonialism in all its shapes and forms.
waiho ia me ke aloha aina,
Nalani Minton nalanima@aol.com
Noenoe K. Silva noenoe@hawaii.edu
Racism is...
- Racism is the disruption of the natural and cultural order and organization of life of a people in their homeland.
- Racism is the alienation of those same people from the lands that support their life.
- Racism is the conversion of the land into a commodity which must be purchased.
- Racism is the imposition of taxes and penalties, permit processes and a monetary system on people without money.
- Racism is the invention of property laws against the traditional placement of people on the land.
- Racism is the elimination of traditional food and food production for a plantation economy.
- Racism is depriving a people of their language by making it illegal to speak their language.
- Racism is overthrowing a national government that was supported by its people.
- Racism is ignoring the continuing protests of the rightful Queen of that government until the day she died.
- Racism is annexing a people and nation against their expressed will (as the powerful Ku'e Petitions atest).
- Racism is forcing a people to be defined as minorities, inhabitants, tenants, occupants, commoners, wards, and incompetents in their own homeland.
- Racism is overwhelming a people's homeland with settlers who then out-number them in so-called democratic processes.
- Racism is removing a nation from eligibility for decolonzation and restoration of independence without their consent or knowledge.
- Racism is manufacturing a statehood election in which the US military and citizens were the majority of the voters.
- Racism is depriving a people of their inherent rights to self-determination.
- Racism is imposing colonialism on a people, resulting in their domination, subjugation, and exploitation.
- Racism is imposing foreign military and economic control over a people and their homeland, leaving them no way to protect their sacred traditional ways of life.
- Racism is amassing a huge foreign military presence which inhibits and intimidates a people from excercising any real recourse.
- Racism is having most jobs controlled by the colonial, alien government.
- Racism is keeping people in a state of fear for their livelihood.
- Racism is not being able to afford to live in your own homeland.
- Racism is being evicted from ancestral lands.
- Racism is having the beach be the only place you can afford to live, and then being evicted from the beach.
- Racism is being forced to live in a highly inflated tourist economy.
- Racism is having property taxes assessed at the inflated rates of land speculation.
- Racism is having to pay taxes to a government who illegally took your land in the first place.
- Racism is collectively suffering from intergenerational trauma and stress caused by genocide and the destruction of the traditional culture.
- Racism is being the poorest in your own homeland.
- Racism is being the most imprisoned in your own homeland.
- Racism is dying younger in your own homeland.
- Racism is having the imposed market economy make your traditional staple food too expensive to afford.
- Racism is being unnaturally divided by a racist blood quantum imposed by the federal government.
- Racism is having the only lands reserved for Kanaka Maoli based on that racist blood quantum.
- Racism is having water privatized in your own homeland in violation of traditional laws and supreme court decisions that are supposed to protect resources for cultural use.
- Racism is having water and resources contaminated by overdevelopment and military abuses.
- Racism is having the US Supreme Court assume the power to terminate your identity as a distinct people and nation and subvert your rights to self-determination in violation of international law.
- Racism is having a federal recognition process imposed as the only option for reconciliation.
- Racism is being prevented from creating your own process of self-determination in your own homeland.
- Racism is having no real remedies agreed upon for the injustices suffered for over a hundred years.
- Racism is having an Apology Law enacted which admits to those injustices and is then ignored.
- Racism is acknowledging the inherent sovereignty of a people in that law, and then denying that they have any political status as a nation.
- Racism is arguing over so-called "ceded" lands, which were actually taken, and never returned or compensated for.
- Racism is having the Justice and Interior departments come to define us a tribal people and thus wards of the federal government with no rights of to full self-determination.
- Racism is having domestic dependency and Congressional plenary power presented as your only options.
- Racism is creating a state-run and funded process for sovereignty and self-determination against the recognition of the greater inalienable nature of those rights which are protected for nations and peoples.
- Racism is forced assimilation under laws of plunder and greed.
- Racism is the denial of the collective rights of a people based on cultural and spiritual identity.
- Racism is being assumed citizens of a foreign constitution and government who have taken control of your lands.
- Racism is being criminalized for practicing your own cultural laws and traditions in your own homeland.
- Racism is not having your rights and true identity honored by the general population who now enjoy life in your homeland.
- Racism is having the aforementioned issues of racism missing in the media coverage and education of the general populace.
- Racism is misusing illusions of power and predjudice to try and reduce an ancient spiritual culture which cares for all life as family and was recognized internationally as an independent nation, to this kind of absurdity.
- Racism is having the Justice department give you only three minutes to explain why all this is wrong.